Ali's Mom's Disney Adventure ReportDates: 8/3-8/8, 1999 (five day trip) Adventurers:
Copyright 1999-2006 |
August 7: Day 4 (Or Mr.
Toot Meets Buzz) I forgot to give you my tuck in note from last night: Now to Sleep - From Disney's Perri: Got to Sleep, slumber deep, let the soft night enfold you. Yeah, the phone is ringing, and Ali is awake to answer it She hangs up with this huge grin on her face (hey, it only took 3 morning to get this right LOL!) We are getting this getting up, and hitting the concierge buffet, and out the door by 7:15am down pretty good. My Mom's legs do not look any better, so I quickly talk to the concierge people and have them book a leg reflexology massage for my mom for around 2pm in the afternoon. I also have the cancel our 5PM Liberty Tree Tavern PS's, since it seems like the group is going to be split up again (more on that later). We head over to Magic Kingdom, which is the first time my parents have now been there, and the third time this trip for Ali. The older girls are already complaining that they just don't want to be here, and would rather be on the beach with a Pina Colada. So, we get on Dumbo, and Ali decides to have a pure 6 year old FIT prior to the Dumbo ride. Seems daddy slipped out of the line, leaving her only with Grandma She did not want to ride with Grandma, she wanted to ride with Daddy. Well, you would have thought my mom was killing her with the way she started crying (okay, this is going to be a TAKE A NAP day)... We have a talk about what is acceptable behavior at Magic Kingdom (what she did was not), and I let her ride the ride. We then go to the new Pooh ride, and I bumped into one of Jane's Pixies... My mom gives me one of these "You promised no pixies today" look and she was relived to see that "R" was indeed here just to be here. We had to ride Pooh 3 times straight in a row for me to catch the Mr Toad and Mr Pooh together picture (Pooh used to be Mr Toad's wild ride). The ride is really a sweet ride, but my dad thought it was too bumpy (okay, for those that had ridden the ride, you now can understand why there has not been an abundance of ride riding on this trip). From Pooh, we did Snow White, and from there we did It's a Small World. We then left Fantasy Land, and went to Tomorrow Land, and to the people mover. I wanted to show mom Space mountain, and Dad said no, Mom could not ride it! I introduced my Dad to Buzz. HE LOVED BUZZ! We had to ride buzz until he could beat my mom's score... now,... that was a riot to watch... I was in the car behind them, and Dad is controlling the swirly stick. Whenever Mom would start to beat him, he'd swirl the cart around so she could not hit anything it was a RIOT! I never laughed so hard in my entire life... they were just like two 2 year olds fighting over the same toy. I got this TERRIFIC idea when we got off the ride, I went across the way to where they make the shirts I ordered a Polo Shirt, with the Buzz character on it (where a pocket would be sorta), and then under Buzz, I had them put the two words Mr. Toot in block letters. I picked it up later in the day, and before we hit the bed, I gave it to dad. He was instantly pleased. So... Mr. Toot meets Buzz has a permanent reminder of the memory. We then went to the Castle for
Breakfast: POINT OF INTEREST: If this is a honeymoon, or a large number anniversary (i.e. 25/50/75) let the manager of the place know. You will get a pair of champagne goblets, with the castle etched into them as gift from Cinderella. My parents also received a 50th-anniversary card, signed by all the characters. If it is your Birthday, you will get a nice cupcake and a nice card (the table next to us was having a birthday). After breakfast, we discovered this little shop DIRECTLY across from the entrance into the restaurant portion of the castle. Now, this has probably always been there, but it's the first time I've ever noticed it. POINT OF INTEREST: We bought Ali a Cinderella Costume for Halloween. It is similar to the one in the catalog, but different, and a little nicer. We also bought her a tiara ($18.00) to go with it, and when I got home, I noticed we had been charged twice for it. I did not notice when we purchased it, and I was out that amount of $$, as I could not prove I had not purchased two. So really look at those receipts closely when you are purchasing a lot of little things. Second POINT OF INTEREST: This one store had tons of Masonic/shrine stuff in it. So, if you are so inclined, you might want to take a look at this shop. It's the only place in WDW that I have ever seen this line. From the castle, we walked through the main street stores, and went back to the hotel. Dad just wanted to go back to the hotel room and sleep, and I wanted to go pack, since we had to leave in the morning. So, we went back, I took Ali over to the pool area and got her hair wrapped. POINT OF INTEREST: If you have a charm bracelet with any WDW princess on it, or WDW characters on it, you might want to temporary take one off and use it at the end of the hair wrap. The ones they offer have nothing to do with WDW. We used Ali's Cinderella. Ali's hair from the back of her ear is 16 inches long, and the price was $40.00 (with tip) to get it wrapped with four colors, and three alphabet beads "A", "L" and "I", and four little beads before the "A" and 4 little beads after the "I". It took about 45 minutes to get her hair wrapped, and then she was off to the pool with Daddy. The girls decided they had had enough of family time (now, for you that have been following along, do you remember how much family time they really have NOT had LOL!). They hit the beach, and bought those Pina Colada's POINT OF INTEREST: I was VERY impressed
with the carding of my daughter each and every time she
purchased a drink. Jennifer was dismayed, but I was
impressed. In fact, in Le Celliar last night, when the
waiter removed her glass when she sat down, she looked up
to him and said "Do I look like I am underage?"
This time, as the bar tender at the pool was stumbling
with words, she just gave him her card, and he looked at
her and said "Thanks, I wasn't sure how to ask
you". POINT OF INTEREST: DO not let them fool you into thinking you have to take the tour to buy into this. You do not. The little bit of info that I have is 150 points is $9,750.00. Each point over that is $65.00. Annual fees are currently at $4.02 per point that your own. Peak time is all the good times you can go with school aged children (i.e. spring break, summer, Thanksgiving and Christmas). A studio size Boardwalk Villa (large hotel room size), is 134 points for 7 nights during August time frame, and 181 points for Christmas time frame. I do not know anymore than this, but I do have some info being sent to me, and we are thinking about buying into this. If you call 800-840-3710, that is the number to get more info. I am seriously thinking about this, but I'd have to give up the GF, so I'm just not sure... My mom was now done with her Spa, and we decided to do the new room tour at the Grand Floridian. .. We met "C", and he took us on the tour: For those who weren't aware, the Grand Floridian renovations started back around the 1st of May, and will continue for the next 22 months or so. The first building being done is #5 - Sago Cay. The renovations you see on the tour are NOT in that building, but are in Boca Chica - 4 rooms set aside for "show". This tour is offered daily at 11:00 am & 4 pm. You sign up at Guest Services & it's free. You need to go to the bell stand 10 min prior to the start. They drive you over to Boca Chica in one of those luggage carts. The rooms you get to see are on the first floor, all the way down the right hall wing. There are 4 different - completely different from now - styles that they'll be redoing the rooms in. Each building will get 2 of the 4 styles, alternating styles between floors. In the suites that have 2 or more bedrooms, each bedroom will be different. The decor of these rooms is similar enough that it won't be too much contrast. In the deluxe concierge rooms in the main building, they'll still use these styles, they'll just have a few extra pieces of furniture. There will be just one new style of carpet for all rooms & suites. (a sort of federal blue background with a XXXXX type of design. Ok, now for the descriptions: The layouts of the rooms will remain the same. The wallpaper in the vanity/bathroom area is very pretty, white background w/topiary character designs all over it. Small scale print. The vanity area's themselves have been upgraded a little. New more attractive mirrors, more powerful in the wall hairdryers, different, more efficient lighting, very pretty new hampers instead of the baskets on the floor; in the bathroom itself, there are nice new shelves above the toilet, and all tubs/showers will have marble surrounds instead of the tile that's currently in a lot of them. The bedroom area is gorgeous! White background wallpaper with an "X'd" pattern of vines & burgundy & a touch of blue smaller scale florals. There are beautiful dark blue printed cornices w/small ruffled edges over the sliding doors, matching curtains with pretty lace sheers. 1) An "Alice in Wonderland" room . A VERY subtle "hidden Alice stuff" type is in the white, green, burgundy & blue bedspread. The furniture will be all new - slightly darker woods, little more sophisticated furniture styling. The TV armoire is totally restyled - it's lower, has a LOT more drawer space. The chairs, table, night stands & headboards are different too. Prettier, I think. Oh and the mini bar will be kept less stocked to allow for guests to put a few of their own things in instead of renting a refrigerator, though you can still do that 2) A "Swan" room - The wallpaper is a sort of damask style, with slightly darker than pastel shades of yellow & a green, in wide stripes. The bedspreads echo these same colors, with swans in various places (small ones, nothing obtrusive) simpler yet still attractive cornices & draperies, with the same lace sheers. 3) A "Mr Toad" room, again with the "hidden" toads in the spreads. It's a lighter blue & yellow scheme, with very pretty bedspreads in those colors, with a bit of a pale red in them. The ruffled style cornices are in here also. 4) There is the "blue fairy" room. Lt federal blue tone on tone wide stripe wallpaper; yellow rose & blue bedspreads; simpler style cornices & drapes. I think this will be a favorite of little 6-year-old girls for years to come. All of the beds will also have some really cute pillows on them. "C" said they may or may not market the bedspreads, etc. I sure hope they do! They're even considering marketing the pillows, but they're not sure about that either and said if they do, it's several years away. The lamps (little Mickey in a top hat lamps!) Lighter wood, about 14" high - I believe he said they are around $475.00 (but I may be wrong on the price) POINT OF INTEREST:All rooms will have a certain number of things that are "inventoried", and if any of those are missing, you will be billed for that item (I'm sure that Mickey will be one of them LOL! - Actually "C" told us what will be inventoried, but I do not want to tell the world what exactly it will be.) Building 9 will be next for closing/renovation. Each building will take about 4-5 months to complete. They are redoing these babies from top to bottom - new roofing, siding, plumbing, electrical - everything!! No matter what building they're working on, all renovations will stop between Christmas & New Years, and over spring break. They have even built a dock so things can be brought via water, and not have to be carried though out the resort. The main building will be the last to be done. They won't be closing any of the restaurants, and the lobby area won't be redone - at least it's not in the plans right now. LOL I sort of gasped when he said they would be closing down ALL rooms at the main building, and he said there's just no other way to do it. OINT OF INTEREST: This was extremely interesting & informative!!! If you have the time & the inclination, you should really make it a point to see this. I don't believe you have to be staying at the Grand to take this tour. It lasted about 45 min or so- I was talking to them, asking lots of questions, so the actual tour time was less than that All the old stuff from the rooms will be sold to an outside source. I was thinking maybe the ALL Stars might get it, but they did not choose to do a "hand-me-down" type of thing. Update: The person from the GF corrected a few of my "tour" remembrances... (hey, I was doing good to remember what I did :-0)...) I sent "C" my report (since he was mentioned in it), and he had a few corrections for me: 1) "Each building will get 2 of
the 4 styles,alternating styles between floors" 2) "In the suites that have 2 or
more bedrooms,each bedroom will be different" 3) "The four type of rooms are :
"Alice in Wonderland", "Swan",
"Mr. Toad" "Blue Fairy" 4) "Each building will take about
4-5 months to complete" 5) "There will not be any work
done over spring break" 6) "The main building will be the
last to be done" "C' and I then talked about this site, and the fact that I had seen something on the net that he did not know was there. I promised "C" I would send him this site address and he promised he would look at it. He had met someone from another site that I visit a lot, so he already knew about that site, but not this one. "C" then took my mom and I over to Victoria and Albert's and we got to tour V&A (and he gave me some very nice write ups on it to share with you all (I'll type it all in AFTER these reports are finished) . We then went over to Narcoossee's. I met the manager (who is soon to have a baby), and got to see this place. This place is WONDERFUL. They also have a "Chef's Table", so when you do your PS's, I would ask for this table. Although it is not in the Kitchen like V&A, at Narcoossee's, they do cooking where you can see the presentation of the cooking, and the Chef's table is set up so that the Chef can interact with you while he is cooking. This is one that I will book next time I am at WDW. The menu seemed to have a little more on it than V&A's. Narcoosee's Menu But I give both a 2-thumbs up. We then talked to "C" about Jane and her business, and I hoping to get the two of them connected, so perhaps Jane can work with the GF, since she does such great work. "C" wife manages the Poly, so maybe she could work with both of them?????? From here "C" walked us out to the Monorail, we said our good-byes, exchanged EMAIL addresses, and Mom and I were off in search of Magic Kingdom. We rode Pirates, sat through the new Tiki Birds, and rode the haunted Mansion - I even got a picture of the "ring". We were hungry at this point, so we went in search of food. We found a place that sold only McDonald French Fries (small - $1.60), but we decided on PECOS BILL TALL TALE INN AND CAFE in Frontier Land Peco's Bill
Meals #1 POINT OF INTEREST: There is a very large "dress your meal" bar, and I have never seen a menu option of fries or carrots, but it was indeed an option. This was a hidden treasure, as the #2 combo that we got was so big, we could not finish it. After dinner, we walked and looked, and got an ice-cream cone. We also got some Benedril (sp?) for my mom's legs. POINT OF INTEREST: Next to Casey's is a baby center. In that center is a good place for downtime for your toddler. Small tables, a TV, and toys. There is also a small store in there that sells bottles, diapers, etc. They also sell small packages of medicines (my moms two Benedril was $1.50, compared to the big box of $6.99). We went to find a place to watch the Electric light parade, and we bumped into Jennifer and Rachel, who had perfect spots stacked out. So, we got these NEAT places to see the parade and we did not have to wait too long for it to start (about 5 minutes). Jennifer keep saying, "Mom, its starting to rain", and we kept saying "no", and she kept saying "yes".. it was so funny when she realized she was feeling mist from a spray bottle from a wayward 5 year old standing near her LOL!. After the parade, we went back to the resort, and my parents "other" surprise had been delivered. Well, half of it anyway. It was "supposed" to have been a chocolate Mickey and Minnie and tuxedo strawberries, but only the strawberries had been delivered, but.. They were WONDERFUL.. And they looked like they had tux's on!!!! I went in search of my tuck in note: From "The Second Star To The Right" From Disney's Peter Pan The dreams you plan really can come true. Now, I don't know if this was planned that this one is given on your last night at the GF, but it was so true. A call to Mickey for a wake-up, a check on this site and my EMAIL, and I was off to sleep... Next: Day 5, How is my pinkie
supposed to go?
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